In the Hastur apartments, a servant told him that Danvan Hastur was awaiting him. As he changed his clothes—the thought of presenting himself before the Regent of Comyn in house clothes and felt slippers was not even to be contemplated—he wondered grimly if Lew had said anything to his grandfather. It occurred to him, hours too late, that if anything had happened to him, Hastur might well have held Lew responsible. A poor return for Lew’s friendship!
When he had made himself presentable, in a sky-blue dyed-leather tunic and high boots, he went up to his grandfather’s audience room.
Inside he found Danvan Hastur of Hastur, Regent of the Seven Domains, talking to Kennard Alton. As he opened the door, Hastur raised his eyebrows and gestured to him to sit down. “One moment, my lad, I’ll talk to you later.” He turned back to Kennard and said in a tone of endless patience, “Kennard, my friend, my dear kinsman, what you ask is simply impossible. I let you force Lew on us—”
“Have you regretted it?” Kennard demanded angrily. “They tell me at Arilinn that he is a strong telepath, one of their best. In the Guard he is a competent officer. What right have you to assume Marius would bring disgrace on the Comyn?”
“Who spoke of disgrace, kinsman?” Hastur was standing before his writing table, a strongly built old man, not as tall as Kennard, with hair that had once been silver-gilt and was now nearly all gray. He spoke with a slow, considered mildness. “I let you force Lew on us and I’ve had no reason to regret it. But there is more to it than that. Lew does not look Comyn, no more than you, but there is no question in anyone’s mind that he is Darkovan and your son. But Marius? Impossible,”
Kennard’s mouth thinned and tightened. “Are you questioning the paternity of an acknowledged Alton son?” Standing quietly in a corner, Regis was glad Kennard’s rage was not turned on him.
“By no means. But he has his mother’s blood, his mother’s face, his mother’s eyes. My friend, you know what the first-year cadets go through in the Guards….”
“He’s my son and no coward. Why do you think he would be incompetent to take his place, the place to which he is legally entitled—”
“Legally, no. I won’t quibble with you, Ken, but we never recognized your marriage to Elaine. Marius is legally, as regards inheritance and Domain-right, entitled to nothing whatever. We gave Lew that right. Not by birth entitlement, but by Council action, because he was Alton, telepath, with full laran. Marius has received no such rights from Council.” He sighed. “How can I make you understand? I’m sure the boy is brave, trustworthy, honest—that he has all the virtues we Comyn demand of our sons. Any lad you reared would have those qualities. Who knows better than I? But Marius looks Terran. The other lads would tear him to pieces. I know what Lew went through. I pitied him, even while I admired his courage. They’ve accepted him, after a fashion. They would never accept Marius. Never. Why put him through that misery for nothing?”
Kennard clenched his fists, striding angrily up and down the room. His voice choked with rage, he said, “You mean that I can get a cadet commission for some poor relation, or for my bastard son by a whore or an idiot, sooner than for my own legitimately born younger son!”
“Kennard, if it were up to me, I’d give the lad his chance. But my hands are tied. There has been enough trouble in Council over citizenship for those of mixed blood. Dyan—”
“I know all too well how Dyan feels. He’s made it abundantly clear.”
“Dyan has a great deal of support in Council. And Marius’ mother was not only Terran but half-Aldaran. If you had hunted over Darkover for a generation, you could not have found a woman less likely to be accepted as the mother of your legitimate sons.”
Kennard said in a low voice, “It was your own father who had me sent to Terra, by the will of Council, when I was fourteen years old. Elaine was reared and schooled on Terra, but she thought of herself as Darkovan. I did not even know of her Terran blood at first. But it made no difference. Even had she been all Terran …” He broke off. “Enough of that It is long past and she is dead. As for me, I think my record and reputation, my years commanding the Guard, my ten years at Arilinn, prove abundantly what I am.” He paced the floor, his uneven step and distraught face betraying the emotion he tried to keep out of his voice. “You are not a telepath, Hastur. It was easy for you to do what your caste required of you. The Gods know I tried to love Caitlin. It wasn’t her fault But I did love Elaine, and she was mother to my sons.”